Official SOTF Rulebook

[SOTF_Help]

Discipline & Bans

1. Sometimes, the staff team may deem it necessary to remove someone from the community temporarily or permanently, for the health and safety of the game and the rest of our members. Users may be banned for variable lengths of time depending on the issues that led to the ban. Some bannable offenses are outlined in the rules, but other situations may arise in which staff have to make this decision, as noted in Global Rule #2. Bans may apply to the site Discord chat, the forum, the wiki, or all three, depending on the problematic behavior in question.

2. In most circumstances that do not constitute an immediate threat to the safety of the community or the integrity of the board, a handler may receive ONE "indefinite" ban, as a final warning before receiving a permanent ban. Handlers may submit an appeal of their indefinite ban to the staff team after a period of two months, outlining their understanding of the problem behavior that led to the ban and how they will conduct themselves going forward. An indefinite ban lasts until an appeal has been submitted, reviewed by the staff, and deemed to demonstrate an appropriate understanding and willingness to improve.

3. In circumstances more immediately serious than the above, cases of long-term and persistent bad behavior, or anything which gives staff a reason to believe that a user is a threat to the health and safety of the community, a permanent ban will be issued. Permanent bans encompass all parts of the site, including the forums, Discord, and the wiki, and cannot be appealed at any point. Permanent bans are rarely given out, as we like to give people time and opportunity to improve themselves, but sometimes they are necessary for the good of our site.

4. For certain offenses that do not merit a full ban from the site and our Discord server, handlers may instead be barred from participating in the ongoing version, with any active, living characters being processed as if they had become terminally inactive. These situations generally include behaviors which would present a significant problem during the game but which do not constitute a bigger problem for the community, such as a persistent inability to abide by the character acceptability rules. In these cases, users will be allowed to participate again in the next main version.

5. If a handler is found to egregiously or consistently break our Code of Conduct, but is otherwise behaving well on-site and in the ongoing game, they may receive a ban from our chat instead of a full ban. These bans can vary in length from one week to as long as one year depending on the severity of the violation. Handlers are allowed to appeal a chat ban if they receive one, but these appeals will likely only be granted in the event of staff error.

6. If you need to report any rule breaking or abusive behavior from a handler or member of staff, either in chat or on the board, please fill out the following form and submit it (via board PM) to a member of staff that you trust:

[+] Report Form

Code: Select all

[b]Your Username: [/b]
[b]Offending Handler(s) Username(s): [/b] 
[b]Date of Incident: [/b]

[b]Description of Incident: [/b]
[b]Relevant Evidence: [/b]

7. Upon receiving the above form, staff will log it and discuss whether or not any disciplinary action needs to be taken in response. If a member of staff is reported via this system, they will be excluded from this discussion, and if deemed appropriate, may be removed from staff and may also face additional disciplinary action. No retribution or retaliation is permitted against anyone reporting staff misbehavior. Any staff member found to have retaliated against a handler that has reported them will be immediately removed from staff and face additional disciplinary action, up to and including a permanent site ban.